In 1998 a space shuttle took up "Neurolab," a package of various animals that were tested and studied to gauge their reactions to conditions in space. There were 1,500 crickets, 230 swordtail fish, 130 water snails, 150 rats, and 18 pregnant mice.

The swordtail fish, crickets, and water snails were dissected on their return to Earth, to study how their gravity-detecting balance censors had reacted to weightless conditions. This work is aimed at helping people with certain kinds of deafness that affect the ear's inner hearing and balance censors.

Roundworms (nematodes) were the only living things to survive the explosion of the space shuttle, Columbia, on February 1, 2003. The worms were stored in a canister in a mid-deck locker. The canister was thrown free when the shuttle disintegrated, falling to Earth in eastern Texas. Eight garden spiders provided by a school in Melbourne, Florida, perished in the shuttle disaster. Spiders taken up to the Skylab space station in the 1970s spun very crooked, untidy webs.

RIPLEY RIDDLES:

1. Gravity on the Earth is how many times stronger than it is on the Moon?A) 12 times B) 6 times C) 3 times D) 2 times

Answer: B. The Moon's gravity is one-sixth the gravity on Earth. That means an average person on the Moon could jump 4 meters (13 feet) straight up. On the Moon, quarterbacks could jump through the uprights on a football goalpost to score a field goal!

2. How much bigger is the Sun than the Moon?A) 400 times B) 300 times C) 200 times D) 100 times E) They're the same size.

Answer: A. The diameter of the Sun is 870,000 miles (1.4 million kilometers), 400 times bigger than the Moon, which is 2,175 miles in diameter (3,500 km). However, because the Sun is 400 times farther away than the Moon, they look roughly the same size from the Earth.

3. Every second, the Sun burns 4 million tons of its own mass. At that rate, how long will it take the Sun to burn up completely?A) 5 thousand years B) 5 million years C) 5 billion year D) 5 trillion years

Answer: C. The weight of the Sun is 333,000 times the weight of the Earth. In a single year, the Sun burns up 33 billion million tons of hydrogen!

4. How long does it take for the light of the Sun to reach the Earth?A) 8 weeks B) 8 days C) 8 hours D) 8 minutes E) 8 seconds

Answer: D. The distance between the Earth and the Sun is 150 million kilometers (93 million miles). Light travels at the speed of 300,000 kilometers (187,000 miles) per second. So it takes about 8 minutes (480 seconds) for the Sun's light to reach Earth.

5. If you are 12 years old on Earth, how old would you be if you lived on the planet Mercury?A) 6 B) 12 C) 24 D) 36 E) 48

Answer: E. A year is the amount of time it takes a planet to circle the Sun. A year on Mercury lasts less than 3 Earth months. So you would be over 48 years old on Mercury!

DISCUSSION IDEAS:

If you could travel safely to any planet, what planet would you want to go to? Why?

What is the most interesting thing you have seen in the sky?

How many constellations can you identify? Do you have a favorite?

On the next clear night, look up into the sky and draw your own constellation. It's easy. Just plot some of the stars you see on a piece of paper, connect the stars with lines, and think about what your drawing looks like.

How fast are you? Since the earth is always spinning, you are moving even when you're standing still. Can you figure out how fast you are moving when you're standing still? The number will surprise you!